


Focus

by AustinB



Series: Tumblr Prompts [11]
Category: Daredevil (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Sensory Overload, karen being awesome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-10
Updated: 2015-09-10
Packaged: 2018-04-20 03:36:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4771955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AustinB/pseuds/AustinB
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He knows the temperature of the air around her, the scent of her hair, the cadence of her breath almost as well as he knows his own. It’s his soft landing place when he’s falling, a hot cup of coffee when his world gets cold. Comfort. Refuge.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Focus

**Author's Note:**

> mooremurdock requested: Matt with sensory overload & Karen being helpful.

It hasn’t happened since he was a kid, but he’s been awake for 36 hours and it’s muggy outside. The moisture in the air is sticking to his skin, and an ambulance is heading toward them. It’s still a mile and a half away, but the increasing blaring siren is making his head throb.

He and Karen are headed to pick up some food on their way to talk to a client, but they’ve only made it three blocks. The seven more to go seem suddenly insurmountable. He knows he won’t make it. The intense need to just lie down right there on the sidewalk makes panic spike up his spine.

But then Karen’s voice is low and warm in his ear.

“Just listen to me, Matt,” she’s saying, and her lips brush the shell of his ear. He’s too out of it to really appreciate the touch, but her voice is like a cocoon.

He’s migrated to press his back against the brick storefront at the corner, or maybe she pushed him there. He tucks his chin down to hunch in on himself and feels Karen’s small fingers work his fists open and she slides her hands into his, talking to him all the while.

“Just listen to my voice. That’s all you need to do. There’s nothing else.”

She knows about his heightened senses. A little white lie fraction of the truth. Enough that she can work out what’s happening now.

She tightens her grip on his hands almost to the point of pain, and it drowns out the feel of the dewy air on his skin. She leads him briskly off the busy street and a block and a half down a side street, then stops and lets him lean his shoulders back against the bricks again.

The ambulance is only a block away now and Karen pulls his head down onto her shoulder and presses her hands over his ears. He puts his hands over hers too and she keeps her voice low and her tone even until the sirens go past and wane away about ten blocks down.

She moves her hands from his ears, but reaches down to lace their fingers together again, since Matt’s still bowed in on himself. He can still hear the horns and sirens across the city, but he’s working on narrowing his focus down to Karen’s breathing, her slightly elevated heart rate.

It’s easier to focus on the notes of nutmeg in her lotion than on his own breathing, the warmth of her body pressed close to his–not quite touching. He knows the temperature of the air around her, the scent of her hair, the cadence of her breath almost as well as he knows his own. It’s his soft landing place when he’s falling, a hot cup of coffee when his world gets cold. Comfort. Refuge.

You think you save these people, but she’s saved you more times than you can count and she doesn’t even need a mask. Just a well-timed smile, her hammer toughness and silky compassion. Go on, tell her so, spark that light in her; she would take you.

But all he says is “Thank you.”

“Yeah, sure,” she says glibly, already playing it off, but he knows about her crush on him. It would be all too easy to give in, knowing she wants him too, but for her sake he won’t. Instead he’ll take his pleasures where he can. In the feel of her fingers laced with his, bask in her attention while he has it.

“Alright,” he says, pushing himself off the wall. “Let’s go.” He drops one of her hands, but keeps the other as they start off down the street and it makes her temperature rise. He’s still narrowed down to the slide of her palm against his, so he actually lets her lead him like she thinks she’s been doing all along.

Karen chatters the whole way to keep his focus and he doesn’t think he’ll ever be able to make her understand just how grateful he is to her for that. Or for everything else. The best he can do is tighten his hand around hers. She walks close to him, pressed against his right side, leading him.

It’s more than he’s ever had before and it’s still not enough, not really. But he’ll make do with what he gets. For now.


End file.
